Chapter 3:
Alex stepped into the blacked out car, placing his suitcase in the seat next to him.
"Alex," the liaison said. "You're posing as a new member of Holloway's gang, Jesse Douglas, we arrested the real Jesse Douglas and found out all we knew before he got to the estate. We need you to work your way up through the gang until you find something solid enough to bring him down."
Alex gave a nod to the FBI agent
"I'll be taking you to an FBI safe house near the estate to give you a full briefing. After that, get over to the estate, and pull Holloway off his throne."
The two of them drove out of New York city from JFK and into upstate New York, they
Alex dropped his suitcase by the door of the safehouse and went into the sitting room.
The Interpol liaison called over the other FBI officers and sat everyone down in the kitchen for the full briefing.
"Listen up. We're sending Alex into the Holloway estate to pull the man off his throne," The liaison said. "This is a joint operation with the boys across the pond in England, they've sent Alex over here to infiltrate Holloway's empire and take him down".
Looks flickered across the room to Alex.
"Alex," he said. "Anytime you get a chance, come back to the safehouse and keep us updated on anything you find and let us know about anything you hear. "
Alex gave a nod to the FBI agent.
The agent handed Alex a gun with a suppressor screwed onto the barrel. "Only use this if you have to. He said, "Do not blow your cover, this is our only shot at Holloway. They're expecting you tomorrow at 2. Don't be late," The liaison handed Alex a piece of paper with a phone number on. "If you need to contact me from inside the mansion, here's my number."
Alex walked back out into the main hall and put all of his stuff into a smaller bag the liaison had given him and brought it upstairs into one of the bedrooms.
Alex dropped the bag and walked back downstairs.
He walked into the sitting room and sat down with the others in front of a coffee table.
One of the officers sitting on the other side of the coffee table in front of him challenged him to a game of chess.
Alex gave the officer a nod and started the game.
Chess was one of the things Alex loved doing with his father when he was a child and a thing he was always good at.
He would always use the four move checkmate against new people.
'Kingside Pawn. Two squares up' he told himself.
The officer moved his kingside pawn forward.
Alex moved his bishop into a position to attack the bishop side pawn.
The officer moved his rookside pawn forward.
Alex moved his queen into a position to take the bishop side pawn.
The officer moved his knight side pawn forward.
Alex took the bishop side pawn with his queen.
"'Mate." He said aloud.
"Damn," said the officer. "You're good"
The officer got up and walked upstairs.
Alex stayed in the sitting room for a while, watching the TV and speaking to some of the other officers in the safehouse, asking about what they were doing.
After a few hours, Alex went back upstairs into the makeshift barracks he had dumped his bag in and fell onto one of the empty mattresses.
Alex stared out the window and watched the sunset.
Once the sun had set. Alex laid back on the mattress and shut his eyes to sleep.
The Next Day
Alex pulled out his phone to check the time.
1:39 PM
2 Missed Calls From Chloe
He picked up his bag and slid his phone back into his pocket and walked downstairs toward the front door.
Alex opened the front door to the house and sat outside on the steps.
'How did I let myself get dragged back into this?' He thought.
He rested his head in his hand as the wind blew past him.
Alex stayed on the steps for a while and pulled his phone out of his pocket.
He texted Tom.
'I'll be back in a few days. Found work and need to go abroad, tell the others and lock the door to my room.'
'K. Where you gone?"
'New York.'
'Nice one mate'
He slid the phone back into his pocket and got up.
Alex walked along the edge of the road by the coast until he reached the Holloway family estate.
A man dressed in a suit answered the door and asked Alex for his name.
"I'm Jesse Douglas, I'm here to see Mr Holloway," Alex said.
The man gestured for Alex to come in. "Follow me." The man said.
Alex followed the man upstairs and into Mr Holloway's study.
"Ah, Jesse," Mr Holloway said. "Please, sit down."
Alex sat down in front of Mr Holloway.
"A foreigner, are you?" Mr Holloway said.
"Yeah," Alex replied. "I'm English."
"You should start straight away," Holloway said. "Go downstairs and speak to Cervis. He's just about to leave for a gun's sale."
Alex left the study and went back downstairs, the walls of the house were decorated with paintings of the Holloway family and other family decorations.
Cervis was leaning up against the car, smoking a cigarette waiting for Alex.
"Are you the new guy?" He asked Alex.
"Yeah," Alex replied, climbing into the car.
Cervis opened the garage door and drove out of the estate.
They drove through Nyack, past the FBI safehouse and into Manhattan.
"So," Cervis said to Alex. "What's your story?"
"Met some of you lot back in England, I flew out here to join up."
Cervis nodded at Alex. "When we get there, don't do anything unless I say so." He said.
The two of them drove out of Nyack and into the city.
They drove through the traffic in Manhattan until Cervis pulled over into an alleyway and climbed out of the car.
Cervis walked round to the back of the car and lifted out a box of weapons.
Alex stayed behind Cervis and let him do the talking.
"We got the guns," Cervis said. "Now give us the money."
One of the other men reached into his pocket and pulled out a stack of money held together by a rubber band.
Cervis nudged Alex and gestured for him to collect the money.
Alex walked out and grabbed the money off of one of the other men and handed it to Cervis.
Alex and Cervis climbed back into the car and drove back to the estate.
Though he hadn't been there long, Alex liked New York and much preferred it to San Francisco.
Alex winced.
The name reminded him of what happened back in San Francisco. The thought of what happened made his stomach churn.
Cervis drove back out of the city, into Rockland County and back to the Holloway Estate in Nyack.
Alex took a few moments to appreciate the beauty of upstate New York and the emptiness of the roads they drove through.
The garage door lifted open and Cervis put the car back into its space.
Alex walked back out into the main lobby and followed another of the guard's upstairs into a small bedroom.
He put his bag in the bed and sat down on a chair in the corner.
Alex got up, locked the door and slumped into his bed to sleep.
All he could see when he shut his eyes was the look of terror on Sabina's face after what he did, as much as he tried to forget what happened and run from it, it always came back to him.
Alex fell back onto the floor, he pulled himself back up and lunged at Seb.
Someone grabbed him from behind and held him in a headlock.
Seb lunged at him again.
Alex grabbed Seb and threw him to the floor.
He felt someone else punch him in the nose and a warm liquid started trickling down from his nose.
He reached over to one of the pool tables and picked up a pool cue; Alex swung at Seb with the pool cue, hitting him in the arm.
Alex woke up the next day and checked the time on his phone.
7:12 AM
He slid his phone back into his pocket and exited the room and went downstairs to try and find Simon.
In the dining room, he heard someone on the phone.
"Okay, I'll fly back out for the funeral in a few days." The man said, "Who's this Jesse bloke you're speaking about?"
Simon spoke in a thick Irish accent, he had thick unkempt ginger hair, covering a lot of his face and he had freckles around most of his face.
"Oh right, okay, I'll ask about for him."
Simon hung up.
"I'm guessing you're Simon then," Alex said jokingly.
"Yeah," Simon said. "Blunt's funeral's in a few days, Crawley's flying us back out for the funeral."
Alex gave a nod.
"Follow me," Simon said, changing to a whisper. "I'll tell you everything I know.
Simon led Alex to his room and pulled out a notebook.
"They flew me out here a few months ago, I haven't found anything solid enough yet, but I've heard something about some Gothyeva bloke Holloway had killed, try find out as much as you can about him, I've also something about the Federal Reserve bank codes, find out as much as you can do about both of them without blowing your cover, in the meantime, get as close to Holloway and Cervis as you can. The closer you get, the more they'll tell you."
Alex gave a nod to Simon and wandered back upstairs into his own room
He walked into his en-suite, undressed and stepped into the shower.
The hot water rushed out from the shower and raced down Alex's back
Alex hadn't been in a house this nice for a while.
In a way Alex sort of enjoyed this, although he had been dragged back by MI6, he hadn't been anywhere as good as this before.
Alex turned the shower off, redressed and stepped back into his bedroom.
Outside, he heard two other men speaking to each over.
"The boy's have all three codes to the combination lock." One of the men said, "we need to take care of Kurt, Gerard and Sophie and send them into the vault."
"I'll get it done." Said the other. "Are we really sending the new guy in instead of Jonny?"
"I'll talk to him, see if he's up to it." The first man said.
One of them walked off and the other came into Alex's room and started speaking.
"Listen. We put together a crew to get into the Federal Reserve vault but one of the crew is abroad for family shit. We've already got the codes, just follow the others, they'll tell you what to do; you up for it."
Alex hesitated for a moment and gave a nod.
"Good, head downstairs and speak to Rick, he'll fill you in on the details, you're going into the bank in 2 day's, get your shit together"
The man got up and exited Alex's room, shutting the door behind him.
Alex messaged the liaison he had met two days' before.
'Meet me at Jack's Bar in an hour.'
'OK. Guessing you found something?"
'Yeah, I'll fill you in at the bar.'
Alex waited in his room for a while before going out to walk to the bar.
His breath turned to vapour in the cold winter's air, Alex turned his head to the side and watched the waves crash against the rough beach.
He quickened his pace and walked towards the bar.
Once he got there, he sat down at a table with the FBI agent who was already sat there waiting for him.
"What did you find?" The agent asked him.
"Holloway's got a crew together, including me, to get into the Federal Reserve Vault in a few days, I haven't got any direct links to Holloway yet. Give em' protection, find a way to get them to rat on Holloway, and try to get him into a position where he'll do something stupid." Alex said, he had already worked out a plan in his head to bring Holloway down.
"Good, we'll bring in extra security to the bank and make sure they don't slip through our fingers, keep poking about the estate, if you find anything good, come straight to me, we'll follow up on any leads we get."
Alex stepped out of the bar and back into the street.
That's when he heard the first gunshot.